1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to lateral rotation therapy generally and, more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to a novel lateral rotation therapy mattress system which is economical to construct and which provides improved operation over conventional lateral rotation therapy devices.
2. Background Art
A major problem in health care facilities is with bed-bound patients who cannot turn or roll over without assistance. Failure of a patient to turn or roll over relatively frequently causes restriction of blood flow in the area of bony protruberances on a patient's body which, in turn, causes ulcerated bed, or pressure, sores. Such sores are extremely long-healing and, with a chronically or terminally ill patient, frequently occur. According to hospital industry sources several years ago, it was estimated that to cure a single bed sore costs society an average of $40,000 and many patients die from bed sores. Failure to regularly move a patient in bed also can result in pulmonary complications, such as pneumonia, particularly when the patient has a head injury.
A standard procedure to prevent bed sores and pulmonary complications is to have nursing personnel turn each immobile patient every two hours. This is not entirely unsatisfactory in a hospital setting where nursing staff is continually available, but may be an unsatisfactory procedure in certain institutions, such as nursing homes, or in private homes, where such assistance may not be available on a frequent basis. Nursing homes can be a particular problem where understaffed situations result in the patients not being turned as prescribed. The situation can become virtually intolerable in the private home setting where relatives may have to interrupt or wake themselves every two hours to turn the invalid who may be elderly or paraplegic; otherwise, the family is faced with the expense of retaining health care personnel merely to turn the invalid.
A major problem with manually turning the patient every two hours is that the patient is disturbed even when sleeping. Excessively heavy patients pose a particular problem.
Recently, "low-loss air beds" have been developed for the treatment and prevention of bed sores. In such a bed, the standard mattress is replaced with a plurality of air bags disposed perpendicularly to the axis of the bed from its head to its foot. The shape of the air bags permits their deformation to accommodate the contours of the patient's body without undue local pressure areas developing. A plurality of small streams of air flow from the upper surfaces of the air bags which are covered by a vapor-permeable sheet. The streams of air dry any moisture vapor which permeates through the sheet and, therefore, helps remove another cause of bed sores and reduces the frequency of bedding changes. An air bed system of the type generally described above is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,216,768, issued Jun. 8, 1993, and titled BED SYSTEM, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference hereinto.
While low-loss air beds have greatly improved the care given immobile patients, further improvements have recently been made by the development of lateral rotational therapy beds and mattress overlays for the treatment and prevention of bed sores and the prevention of pulmonary complications. With such a bed or mattress overlay, the patient is periodically gently rolled from side to side at a rate which does not wake a sleeping patient. This promotes blood circulation on bony protruberances, greatly reduces the tendency to develop bed sores, and also greatly reduces the tendency of patients to develop pulmonary complications. A major disadvantage of such beds and mattress overlays developed so far is that, in some cases, they are relatively complicated, expensive, and/or difficult to manufacture. The beds are dedicated devices. In most cases, the beds and mattress overlays do not adequately support the patient. The mattress overlays suffer from relying on a bed mattress for support and the bed mattress is frequently too firm or too soft for proper support of the patient. Some have no means to keep a patient from rolling off. Most do not keep the patient properly positioned laterally on the bed. Some allow the patient to rise above the level of the safety rails of the bed, creating an unsafe condition. None can function as a static low loss air bed.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide a lateral rotational therapy mattress system and method which are simple and economical to implement, yet permitting adequate support for the patient.
It is a further object of the invention to provide such lateral rotational therapy mattress system and method which can be used with conventional beds.
It is another object of the invention to provide such a lateral rotational therapy mattress system and method which prevent a patient from rising too high with respect to the safety rails of a bed.
A further object of the invention is to provide such a lateral rotational therapy mattress system which can function as a low loss air bed when not being used for rotational therapy.
An additional object of the invention is to provide such a lateral rotational therapy mattress system and method which provide patient flotation in the event of power failure.
Another object of the invention is to provide such a lateral rotational therapy mattress system which is configurable for either adult or pediatric patients.
Yet a further object of the invention is to provide such a lateral rotational therapy mattress system and method which maintain proper lateral position of a patient.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide such a lateral rotational therapy mattress system which is easily and economically manufactured and maintained.
Other objects of the present invention, as well as particular features, elements, and advantages thereof, will be elucidated in, or be apparent from, the following description and the accompanying drawing figures.